In the summer vacation of 2019, seven undergraduate students from Nankai University attended the 2019 Summer Harvard Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School with classmates from Capital Medical University, Southeast University, Southwest Medical University, Fujian Medical University etc. Mr. Sida Zhao and Mr. Guoxing Zhao attended the program successively with the students as chaperons.

Bruce Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., member of The National Academy of Sciences and director at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, and Xuejun Kong, M.D., head of the SYNAPSE Program at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School and chairwoman of the US-China Medical Exchange Association, attended the opening ceremony. Over thirty medical experts from different areas provided excellent trainings for students. During the program, students also visited some of the world-leading hospitals, research institutes and universities, including the Massachusetts General Hospital, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston Children Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Center for Life Science Boston, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology etc. All Nankai students have obtained their certificates of completion while Hongbin Xie was awarded the Certificate of Excellence.

According to students’ feedbacks, they had practiced their oral and written English and experienced life in the United States and studying at a world-leading medical and teaching institute. This unforgettable experience has motivated their enthusiasm for studying in China.

Harvard University, as the No. 1 university in the 2019 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), 2019 & 2018 Best Universities in the World - US News Education, is also leading the world in clinical medicine, immunology and microbiology. The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), as the first and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, is also one of the three oldest hospitals in the US. In 1846, the first operation with anesthesia was performed at MGH while in 1896 X-ray was first introduced into clinical practice at this hospital. The Summer Harvard Research Program is held annually in the summer vacation to enhance students’ research through lectures, seminars, discussion, laboratory and enterprise tours. The School of Medicine, Nankai University first sent students to this program in 2018.